Air New Zealand will cut flights between Christchurch and the Kapiti Coast, due to a lack of demand. The Kapiti Coast Airport to Christchurch route had been operating at a loss since it was launched two years ago, a statement from the airline said. "Unfortunately the Paraparaumu to Christchurch route has been operating regularly at little over half full and that's simply not sustainable long term," group general manger for New Zealand and Pacific Islands Louise Struthers said. The airline was increasing return services on the more popular route between Kapiti and Auckland by two per week, to a total of 16 weekly flights. Struthers said this would create more opportunity for customers to connect via Auckland to the rest of the airline's domestic and international network. Air New Zealand launched the daily service between Kapiti and Christchurch in November 2013 using 50-seater Bombardier Q300 aircraft. At the time, Kapiti Coast Airport chairman Sir Noel Robinson said it was a big step forward and would boost tourism in the district. "For the international traveller, it means they can come to Kapiti before going to the South Island, instead of going to Wellington and missing Kapiti out." Kapiti Mayor Ross Church said he was disappointed to see the Christchurch service go, "however there simply hasn't been the demand we had hoped for". The last Paraparaumu to Christchurch service will be on February 28. Passengers already booked on services beyond that date will be given the option of flying via Wellington or Auckland, or receiving a full refund. Flights from Paraparaumu to Auckland started in October 2011.
What do you reckon Andrew???
Has anyone heard anything on Sounds Air and Masterton. I remember reading somewhere that they were looking at flying MRO-WLG.
ReplyDeleteThat was much earlier when Air NZ canned WLG-WAG and MRO-AKL. They opted for WLG-WAG... MRO-WLG would have had much less chance of working.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course it turned out the former was as much of a flop.
DeleteDidn't see this service lasting. PPQ is just too close to WLG although it appears it can support a good 2-4 flights per day to AKL with more being added which is good.
ReplyDeleteWikipedia has been saying that Eastern Australia is sending 2 Q300's over to Air Nelson in early 2016, has anyone seen anything about this? Bit of a weird thing to make up but wouldn't see the point in adding anymore with ATR's arriving left right and centre.
The schedule didn't suit business traffic - It might have worked if the schedule suited business people who reside in PPQ and went down early in the morning and returned late afternoon.
ReplyDeleteA VERY interesting comment in the fleet section of the Wiki page about Eastern Airlines...
Originair could make use of this. Sounds Air would be too small and Air 2 There seems to be happy sticking with PPQ-BHE-NSN-PPQ. If Origin did two flights M/W/F plus one a day on other days it could work in my opinion.
DeleteAgreed origin could do it, but the asset needs to be positioned in PPQ to make it work at peak times.
DeleteI doubt a Jetstream would have the performance to use PPQ since the runway's been shortened.
DeleteInteresting.
ReplyDeleteI guess they are on a short term lease until the 2 batch of new ATR72-600 starting arriving from late 2016 onwards.
Isn't Air NZ (Air Nelson) going to increase Q300 services once the 1900D are finally withdrawn 28 Mar 16.
According to Wiki, new Q300 services will start CHC-BHE 1 May 16, WLG-GIS 31 Jul 16, WLG-PMR 1 Apr 16, WLG-TIM 28 Mar 16 and PMR-HLZ 29 Aug 16
Those Q300's are being freed up due to ATR's going on WLG-TRG, WLG-NSN, WLG-IVC and more ATR's on CHC-NSN, CHC-TRG and CHC-IVC. and it looks like there will only be 1 or 2 Q300's a day in PMR and DUD.
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